Roscoe Village man records family history

Les Widder has found plenty of things to fill his spare time since he retired after spending 35 years as an educator in Ashland, Wayne and Coshocton counties. Widder, who lives in Roscoe Village, serves as choir director at Roscoe United Methodist Church in Coshocton, and he restores pump organs as a h...

Les Widder has found plenty of things to fill his spare time since he retired after spending 35 years as an educator in Ashland, Wayne and Coshocton counties.

Widder, who lives in Roscoe Village, serves as choir director at Roscoe United Methodist Church in Coshocton, and he restores pump organs as a hobby. Last year, he completed a book on his family history, “The Widder/Kinsey Homeplace Stories,” which has already gone through two editions.

“It’s something I’m so grateful I took the time to do it,” Widder said.

His great-great-grandfather, Engelhardt Widder, a German immigrant, purchased the family farm in 1860. It is located on old Route 39, three miles east of Sugarcreek. Les’ brother, Dan, is the fifth generation of the family to own the property.

Other family names mentioned in the book include Shaw, Fellers, Rinehart and Hogue.

The book includes tales about some of his colorful ancestors, such as his great-great-grandmother, Phoebe Froelich of Barrs Mills. “When you look at pictures of her, you knew you didn’t want to mess with her,” he said.

Froelich would spear fish in Sugar Creek with a manure fork. “She smoked a cigar to keep the mosquitoes away,” Widder said.

He also has stories about his father, Doran, who died in 2012. Doran Widder was active in the Grange and served 35 years on the Tuscarawas County Fair Board.

Doran came from a family of five children and was the only one of his siblings to attend high school. He dropped out at age 16 during the Depression. “He went to one basketball game while he was in high school because his dad didn’t have a quarter for a ticket,” Widder said.

Doran Widder told his son about a day during the 1930s when the skies darkened to the west, and people thought a storm was headed their way. Instead, they found out that it was dust blowing in from a storm coming out of the Dust Bowl.

The book took a year to complete, Les Widder said. The research was a learning process, because he didn’t know much of the information beforehand.

“Some things would be gone if I hadn’t done the book,” he said.

Widder has spent 20 years on his unusual hobby, restoring pump organs. “I’ve always been fascinated by mechanical things,” he said.

Over the years, he has worked on 35 organs. “Each one is different,” he said.

Most of the organs have come from Ohio, though he did restore one from Kentucky. He is working on three pump organs right now.

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy of “The Widder/Kinsey Homeplace Stories” can contact Widder at pnotunr@roadrunner.com. It costs $25.